Oral History Project

Marketa Uhlirova was commissioned to develop this oral history project for the 'Museum of London'. Her interviews, with written summaries, were used in the display of a temporary exhibition 'The London Look' and became part of the permanent Oral History collection. The structured interviews were undertaken within the framework of an oral history methodology, in keeping with the museum’s remit as social history museum.

With the curators of the temporary exhibition, Uhlirova selected 25 London-based fashion practitioners, educators and members of sub-cultural and consumer groups. The interviews last approximately 2.5 hours and covered the origins, structures, processes, internal relations and overall significance of London fashion. Their incorporation via listening posts in the exhibition received positive reviews.

The project maps London fashion and style from the 1940s to the present. It records a diverse range of creative careers and consumer attitudes to fashion in the capital, contributing to an understanding of its specificities. It adds new viewpoints, interpretations and anecdotes to received knowledge, enriching fashion history, at times correcting its myths, and shows how fashion interacts with other cultural forms such as music and art.

Marketa Uhlirova

Research Interests

Role and display of Fashion and Costume in Cinema
Fashion rhetoric’s and public debates
History and theory of the catalogue
Art, fashion, photography and visual culture (19th - 21st century)

Current Research

My research focuses on the period between 19th - 21st centuries and studies relationships between cultural production, institutions and society. I am interested in a variety of media, forms and practices as well as public debates (historical and contemporary) around them; these are above all film, art, fashion and photography.

I am the Director and Curator of Fashion in Film, a collaborative research project which explores the mutual impact of fashion and film industries across the entire history of cinema. We regularly contribute to exhibitions, events and conferences, and hold our own major festivals every two years, hosted by such venues as BFI Southbank and Tate Modern in London, and the Museum of the Moving Image in New York. Our research and curation promotes a sustained interest in film as an invaluable tool for fashion historians, and at the same time focuses on the interpretation of film costume and styling, which have played a vital role in many aspects of cinema and film culture.

While costume and fashion are always the key focus for us, we increasingly encourage comparative studies between film & fashion and a wide range of disciplines - from literature, theatre and dance to art, photography, architecture and music.

• http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/archive...
• http://www.fashioninfilm.com